derek

Well, it’s been a long time since I’ve written here. What can I say? St. Petersburg stopped being an adventure. I just kind of live and work here. But not anymore! The past few months, I’ve had one foot already out the door. Tomorrow morning, I’ll have both feet firmly out the door.

Tomorrow morning I fly to Tbilisi, Georgia. The plan is to stay there for a week. After that, I’ll take a bus to Istanbul, Turkey, and spend about a week there. From Istanbul, I will take a ferry to Odessa, Ukraine. Maybe I’ll spend two or three days there? From Odessa, I will take a train to Krakow, Poland, to meet Ania. She’ll introduce me to Poland for a week.

After that? I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll visit a few more places in Europe. Soon, back to the United States, and ultimately to Boston to start studying law. What a long, strange trip it’s been.

I don’t have anything else interesting to say. After all, I’m still in St. Petersburg. Here’s some photos from the last month.

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This is one of the groups of roving gypsies that patrol Nevsky Prospekt. They make a living off stealing from passer-bys — money, cell phones, MP3 players, other electronics, etc. Gypsies are notorious in St. Petersburg. One of my students, a doctor, told me about a patient of his. He was kidnapped by gypsies and they kept him as a kind of slave. He had to work in the metro, begging for money the gypsies would keep. After about five years, he came down with tuberculosis. That’s when they abandoned him and he ended up in my student’s hospital. The gypsies bribe the police so they’re free to operate as they please.

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VYBORG

Last week, Tanya, Ania and I took a trip to Vyborg, a city a few hours to the north, on the border with Finland. The city was originally a Finnish city, but Russia seized it during war. Now, the only Finns in the city are tourists, having a look at what used to be theirs.

On the train.

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Exploring an abandoned building. Since taking the city over, Russia has really let Vyborg rot. It almost feels like half the buildings in the city are destroyed and abandoned.

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Looking at abandoned papers from 1995.

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Up-top a medieval castle tower — the center tourist attraction of the town.

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Looking down.

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Ania. The castle in the background.

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See you in Tbilisi.

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Above: short videos of us at the main fountains of Peterhof.

Ania is the true photographer in our group. I’ve copied her photos from Peterhof to my computer now, so here are a few highlights:

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Now that spring has finally come to Russia, I’ve started to see a new side of the city — the parks. St. Petersburg has many parks which spring to life in May. For months they were completely empty, covered in snow. Now, they seem like the busiest parts of the city.

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Ilagin Island

This entire island — situated right in the city — is dedicated to a park. It’s amazingly quiet. The park is filled with chirping birds and little squirrels that won’t be shy to jump on your legs. Winding rivers cut through the island. Below: one of my favorite pictures of this whole trip.

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Divo Island

This island houses St. Petersburg’s largest amusement park. Even though it’s the biggest in the city (second biggest in Russia, I believe), there’s only a few rollercoasters. The United States beats Russia for amusement parks, without a doubt.

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Peterhof

I was in Peterhof before, but it wasn’t the same thing in the winter. Peterhof is the former summer home, outside the city, of the tsar. Today, it holds an amazing, absolutely huge, public garden. Some of my students arranged a visit for us. One student, Lena, is a manager at the garden, so she gave us an exclusive tour.

Above: on the boat, on the way to Peterhof. Beats a bus.

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Note to self: get the nature photos from Ania’s camera later.

The other day, Ben, Alexei and I went to a Russian soccer game — Zenit (St. Petersburg) versus some team from Samara. St. Petersburg is absolutely crazy about their team, Zenit, and is famous for their soccer hooligans.

In the photo above, we’re stopped by a line of riot police on the way to the game. Police would become the theme of the day.

Above: Ben explains something to me.

Above: Zenit pride!

About three-quarters through the game, something interesting happened.

The stadium is divided into sectors. We were behind one goal — the place non-fans, foreigners, etc. are placed. Across from us, behind the other goal, were the hardcore Zenit fans. In their sector, the people in the bottom row started flying a huge banner reading, “FOOTBALL WITHOUT POLICE.” Unsurprisingly, a few minutes later about twenty police marched up to tear the banner down. (The stadium was crawling with riot police. They were especially noticable in the small sector where fans from Samara were seated — riot police literally surrounded them with a small army. There were about as many police as there were Samara fans.)

After the police tore the banner down, all hell broke loose. The Zenit fans started tearing their seats from the stadium and throwing them down at the police. Police responded by exploding “smoke grenades” (no idea what they are actually called — this is my name only), as can be seen in the photo above.

After about five minutes of the seat throwing and smoke grenade battle, the Zenit fans slowly streamed out of the stadium. Behind them was a checkerboard of missing seats. Meanwhile, the players ignored everything and continued the game, likely without anybody watching.

The game ended 2-0, Zenit.

Our livingroom is filled with beanbags. One night we were inspired to open them up. Without further comment, the results are below — photos from Ania’s camera:

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Above: the Victory Day parade in St. Petersburg on May 9th. The video was recorded by my roommate Ania. If you listen carefully, you can hear me.

Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6kUUt4VTvQ

In the United States, Victory Day is when you don’t work. In Russia, it’s a huge deal. The Russians suffered in World War II far more than the United States. They lost huge portions of their population. St. Petersburg (then “Leningrad”) suffered more than most the country. The city was completely blockaded for around 900 days. The population suffered unimaginably. Cannibalism was common; people ate wallpaper. One of my students told me about her grandmother, whose job at the factory was on the roof. Her and a colleague sat on the roof holding a sheet to catch firebombs dropped by German warplanes.

Despite heavy wind and cold rain, the streets were full of people watching multi-hour parade. May 9th is the one day St. Petersburg’s elderly get to feel like heroes. According to tradition, children give the elderly flowers. Kids keep running out from the sidewalks to give veterans in the parade flowers. As the veterans passed by, several stopped to give this old woman theirs.

The parade had soldiers, marching bands, veterans and others.

Above: flowers.

Above: the Communist Party.

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Surely you noticed this page has a different design now. To keep my previous, custom design, I had to pay an annual fee. The year ended and I decided it wasn’t worth paying for a renewal, so this default theme will do for now.

Some other recent, non-Victory Day related photos below:

Above: Ben and Luke.

Above: Ania and Irmina.